During medical treatment, it may be necessary for the patient to be transferred from a movable patient support to an operating table and/or from the operating table to a movable patient support. It can become necessary, for example, during or following a medical intervention on an operating table for a transfer to a patient support in order to carry out an imaging procedure, particularly by a magnetic resonance tomograph, to monitor the intervention.
In order to carry out this transfer process safely, the operating table is typically first docked onto the patient support. The patient support and the operating table are brought into a particular relative position.
FIG. 1 shows how the transfer of the patient who is initially situated, for example, on support surface 31 of the patient support 30, to the operating table 10 is carried out in the conventional manner according to the prior art. The support surface 11 of the operating table is connected by a locally fixed stationary column 12 to the floor 1. Beside the operating table situated on the floor 1 is a fixed floor dock 20. The patient support 30 is moved to the operating table 10 by a displacement unit 32 and locked in place there with the aid of the floor dock 20. This takes place with the aid of a locking device 33 mounted on the patient support 30. The locking device 33 is positioned such that the patient support 30 is correctly oriented relative to the operating table 10 following the locking procedure, so that the patient support may be docked to the operating table and a safe transfer of the patient may take place.